By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
A seven-house West Seattle development called The Orchard is home to a fight over trees.
This past week, several readers called our attention to a banner hung on the front of one of the new homes in the development, at 5620 Beach Drive SW [map], very visible to passersby. The banner announces, “WE’RE SUING THE DEVELOPER.”
The banner also names the developer, Calvin White, so we checked King County Superior Court files and found the lawsuit against him and his firm Charcoal Creek LLC, filed almost three weeks ago.
The lawsuit filed by homeowner Aron English focuses mostly on tree-cutting at the site, which has drawn attention previously. One nearby resident contacted us about it last February, calling the tree-cutting “carnage.” At the time, we looked up the arborist’s report for the project, which among other things assessed many trees on the site as “dead, dying or in poor condition.” The neighbor who contacted us back then also was worried about the slope in the area and how tree removal would affect it.
But that’s not what the lawsuit is about. First, it contends that the purchase and sale agreement into which English entered early this year says “Any of the following items . . . located in or on the Property are included in the sale: . . . shrubs, plants and trees planted in the ground.” The lawsuit also says developer White provided materials during the sale/escrow process “depicting a number of significant trees on the Property, which provided aesthetic appeal and privacy from neighboring properties in The Orchard development.”
The property was in escrow last February when, the suit alleges, English’s fiancée – “who also acted as an agent on the transaction” – got a phone call from White asking if the couple wanted any trees on the property removed. She consulted with English and, the suit says, texted White to say no – but over the next week, the developer “hired a landscaping or tree removal service to cut down several trees on the Property, without Plaintiff’s consent.” The suit alleges this was done to “improve the viewshed” of another homesite in The Orchard. That same week, the sale of English’s house closed, and he started moving in. The next day, “a complaint was filed with the City of Seattle alleging that trees were being removed from the Property without proper permits.” (City records show that complaint was closed in early March, but the record points to two other complaint filings, one of which remains an active case, all alleging improper tree cutting.)
Meantime, a few days later, on February 20th, the lawsuit alleges, the developer hired more tree-cutters, who then removed the wood and dumped it next to the development site, “advertised as free firewood.” But that wasn’t the last of the tree-cutting, according to the lawsuit, which says that sometime in the ensuing weeks, the developer knocked on English’s door to say “he planned to remove a tree on the neighboring property, which he said belonged to him” – but then the homeowner did a property survey in May and says it showed the tree was actually on his property.
At this point, unrelated to the trees, the lawsuit also gets into two other grievances with the developer, one involving an appliance-company truck allegedly running over and breaking a “concrete fixture … resulting in loose wires,” another alleging installation of a water-pressure valve was bungled.
The suit seeks unspecified damages for alleged wrongs including “timber trespass,” breach of contract, misrepresentation, and “unjust enrichment.” We contacted attorneys for both sides to offer the plaintiff and defendant the chance to comment. English declined comment, according to his lawyer. White’s response to our inquiry, through his lawyer: “Charcoal Creek and Mr. English have an ongoing dispute over the location of a boundary line that started when Mr. English removed landscaping that was not on his property. When that dispute could not be resolved, Mr. English filed a lawsuit alleging the developer improperly removed plants and trees, and placed his banner on his deck. Charcoal Creek disagrees with the claims made in the lawsuit. However, Charcoal Creek has and will continue to work with Mr. English in a reasonable manner to resolve their disputes.”
If the case isn’t settled, it’s preliminarily scheduled to go to trial in October of next year.
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